Alienware announced today that it will offer a 4x Blu-ray drive option in four …

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Alienware announced today that it will be the first manufacturer to offer desktop systems with built-in 4x Blu-ray drives.

According to a 2x Blu-ray multi-drive review done by The Inquirer, burning 25GB to a Blu-ray disc at 2x speed takes about 45 minutes. That means burning a dual-layer 50GB disc would take about an hour and a half. A 4X would potentially cut this time in half with its 144Mbps transfer rate.

The Alienware desktops with the optional drive are the Area-51 7500, Aurora 7500, Aurora-51 ALX and the Aurora ALX. Adding the 4x Dual Layer Blu-Ray/DVD+-RW/CD-RW burners will set you back $600, which isn't too bad considering that 2x burners cost in the area of $475 from online retailers.

The catch is that 50GB 4x discs have yet to catch up with the speed of the drives. Right now, TDK is offering a 4x 25GB BD-R25B (recordable) discs for $19.99. A 50GB edition was supposed to be announced sometime this summer, although that hasn't happened yet